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Zeng Zhimin
Leading figure of the late-Qing school-song movement who studied at the Tokyo Music School, compiled the Jiaoyu changge ji (1904) and founded a Shanghai orphanage with a Western-style orchestra.
Mural of the cultural record “Chinese Art Song”, which this person is tied to.
Also known as Hao Zemin
Zeng Zhimin, styled Zemin, was born in Shanghai in 1879; his father Zeng Zhu, from Tong'an in Fujian, had made a fortune in trade. He went to Japan in 1901 to study law at Waseda, entered the Tokyo Music School in 1903, wrote an outline of music theory that year and in 1904 compiled the Jiaoyu changge ji, also translating a music primer and writing on music education; he was one of the leading figures of the school-song movement. Back in China in 1907 he ran a summer music course in Shanghai, and in 1908, honouring his father's last wish, founded the Shanghai Orphanage with a music department and a Western-style orchestra. After the orphanage closed around 1921 he moved to Beijing, where he died in 1929.
Life and times
Dates 1879 CE–1929 CE